NC QSO Party Results - 2026

 2026 Full Results - Soapbox - FT4/FT8 Results

by Marty Young W4MY

Chairman, North Carolina QSO Party

 

The North Carolina QSO Party was exciting this year with new challenges, lots of participants, and great band conditions. Those who are new to the event got a chance to experience a bonus system of “counties” like it used to be in the old days.  Working “anyone” who's QTH was within a “bonus” county was significant in the resulting final scores.  This made for some interesting placements in the standings.

As everyone knows, going to the outdoors and operating portable, mobile, or expedition is the heartbeat of any state QSO party. Ours is no exception. Three mobiles were complemented by no less than ten Expeditions and seven Portables.  The strong support of POTA is a great influence on this type of operation with some great places to go inside the Tarheel state.  Our Mobile winner, N4CW, and Portable winner, AA5JF, took full advantage of the moving strategy allowed in these categories.  These guys activated over 30 different counties between them within the contest's 10 hour duration. That takes great planning and effort.  Be sure to check out the soapbox accounts of our guys and gals in the field.  They had a blast!

Total QSO's this year was 52,895. Looking back historically, that amounts to about a 75% increase from where the QSO Party was ten years ago    There has also been a significant increase of phone activity from what used to be a mostly CW event in years gone by.  The CW activity has not gone down, SSB has come up!

North Carolina

Single-Op

The CW High Power title was won by Bruce Sawyer, N6NT, operating in McDowell county.  Bruce racked up a score of 304,610 points. He made a total of 750 QSO’s and worked a total of 109 counties/states/provinces. The runner up is Jim, NA4J, in Forsyth with a score of 244,358 points! Jim made a total of 730 QSO’s and worked 97 multipliers.

On the Low Power side of things on CW is Vlado, N3CZ, bringing in the top score from Buncombe County.  Vlado came out ahead with a score of 216,236 points accumulating  613 QSO’s  from 101 different places.  Coming in second closely behind for the certificate is John Getz putting in his effort from Buncombe also.  Was there some special propagation out there in the mountains?  Maybe just good ops in this category because the first four finishers topped a 100K score.

Top prize among those choosing to operate both modes and High Power in the Mixed category is no stranger to ham radio contesting, Nate Moreschi using his club call AA4NC.  With a score of greater than 500K points, that's about as high as it gets. A distant, and respectable, second place score was put in by Bill, WA4WR, lighting up Lincoln County.

The winner of Mixed Low Power category among the Tarheel operators for this year is Floyd, K8AC, who topped twelve other contestants. Floyd was able to attain a score 239,010 points, achieving all of them operating from one county, Ashe!  Coming in second using less than 150 watts is Cliff Conklin, WA2KMC from Durham.

The top four entrants in the High Power Phone only method of making QSO's all achieved the county bonus sweep.  This, and the other county/state multipliers, is what made the difference in the standings here.  Second place contender, Chuck, KK4TE, made the greatest number of QSOs, well over 900 in fact.  But in first place is Steven Schwab, KT4Q, having made 38 fewer Q's but six more mults. Both efforts are plaque worthy, but Steve in Clay county had the upper hand over Chuck operating from Yadkin this time.

Speaking of bonus points and sweeps, have a look at the Phone Low Power standings.  Wow!  Out of the 40 submissions here, 23 achieved the 500 bonus credit for working 5 or more of the bonus counties.  That's pushing 50% and leading that charge is another Franklin County op, Daryl Cash, K4DCP, who made 500+ QSOs and a whopping 110 mults!  And the second place effort was quite respectable too, with Russ Johnson, K3PI, in Davidson right there behind.

Lets not forget about the QRP category.  Those guys pushed the limits of minimization by bringing their output power down to the basement.  Even so, there's a great sense of accomplishment in operating this way, especially in a contest.  The leader here is Oleg, K1WAT, from Moore county.  The second place certificate goes to the one who achieved the county bonus mentioned, David W. Ledford, W4JL, operating in the most western part of North Carolina, Cleveland county.

Multi-Op

Lets take a look at our in state mult-op categories.  This is the area where club efforts reside in the standings.  This year, we had both surprise and calm expectation.  First, using High Power, its no jolt that Bruce and Laurie Meier using their club call NC4KW, the North Carolina Kilowatts, came in with the leading score resulting from nearly 1000 Q's and 115 different county/state/provinces/dx multipliers.  WA4J, Watauga Amateur Radio Club, took second place running their amplifier from Ashe county.  These ops did a great job compiling 847 QSOs and 103 mults.  The Low Power side of things this  where the excitement is born out.  Barely a whisker of difference separates the first and second place operating groups.  We looked at this one very carefully, dotting every eye and crossing every tee.  Our automation hero, LogBot, does a great job of scoring every log carefully and correctly, but this one needed a look.  Measure twice and cut once! Happy to report nothing changed, but we just made sure!  A difference of 0.6% separated  the Pinecone Amateur Radio Club, N4BCJ,  who came out on top, from second place finisher K4MN, the Cape Fear Amateur Radio Society operation.  Kudos to both groups!  Even though Cape Fear topped the QSO count, Pinecone eeked out the victory with two additional mults!

Mobile and Portable

Great job by everyone getting out there and lighting up those counties, especially the rare ones.  Andrew Goss, AA5JF, taking first place in Portable activated six different counties within the 10 hours allocated and N4C, Paul Raiche, coming in second, lit up three counties. Good job guys.  Bert, N4CW, topped out the 3 mobiles operating from a whopping 25 different NC counties making north of 1300 QSO's.  In a 10 hour contest that's an average of 130+ QSOs an hour.  And that is the average!  Did Bert and Jim even have time to eat a bologna sandwich?  A good score was also put in by N2CU roving in 8 different counties gaining Tom the second place certificate.

Expedition

Rounding out our operations from inside the state of North Carolina let's look at the Expeditions.  A very good turn out in this category.  With the popularity of POTA and nimble ops doing such one would think the Portable class would prevail.  This was not the case having 10 entries here in Expedition.  First thought was maybe the bonus status was the draw, but that is not it.  Only one operation (K4W, MAC) was from a bonus county.  In any event, Dick Goodwin, K4JJW, lead the charge to the great outdoors Field Day style to take the plaque.  Second place finisher, KC2QVD, made considerably more QSOs but fell behind quite a bit on the mult count making a significant difference.  This is a situation where the 10X value of working stations in the bonus counties made the difference.

Outside North Carolina

CW

The winner of the Single-Op CW High Power category from the Pine Tree state is David Spencer, N1CGP. David earned a score of 53,396 points doing that by making 142 QSO’s from 58 different NC counties. The runner up for High Power CW is from way out of state, Diestmar Kasper, DL3DXX, all the way in Germany.  Not the first time a DX station has made it in the top standings, and not the first time for Diestmar!  And, I'm sure, nor will it be the last. Diestmar submitted 125 QSO’s coming from 55 counties. Great job to these two out of state CW ops in this category of 23 submissions.

Low Power was used by winner Mark, K1RO in New Hampshire pouncing on NC to get 228 QSOs racking up the top score of 99,410 with dits and dahs.  A good showing by Bill Bliss, W1WBB heralding from the smallest state in the union, Rhode Island.  A small state but far from a small signal using low power!

Mixed Mode

The winner using both phone, CW, and High Power is yet another DX we all know well, Laci, OM2VL.  This is not the first time a DX station has won an NCQP category, and not the only time shipping a first place plaque across the Atlantic ocean. This is quite an accomplishment even if Laci makes it look easy.  The runner up is Bill Stravinsky, K3WJV, taking advantage of his good location in Pennsylvania to earn the certificate in this category,    Laci and Bill both put up good numbers to top the other 36 entrants who used legal limit power.  Congratulations to both.

The number of entrants who opted using low power and multi modes was 76, higher than those with the amps.  So its much more competitive and no less exciting!  When the dust cleared, Paul Trouten, W8PI, in Michigan, was the winner.  A good showing by Rich, N0HIC in neighboring Minnesota rounded out the top two finishers.

The QRP category rounds out the mixed mode acknowledgments here.  A warm pat on the back goes to Tom Warren, K3TW for grinding out 170 QSOs with NC hams in 66 of the 100 counties.  That's quite an accomplishment in its own right, let alone QRP.  But he wasn't alone.  Marty, K8MV, down south in Florida will get the second place certificate this time.   Marty lacked just 5 QSO's and 2 fewer counties than Tom.  And all from power barely enough power to light a Christmas light bulb!  Good job!  It would be remiss to not give an honorable mention to Marc, W4MPS who came in a very respectable third place.  For those who don't know, Marc was with us for 13 years on the NCQP committee and was one hard worker.  His tireless contribution to making NC QSO Party what it is today cannot be adequately acknowledged.  He was instrumental in forging the analytical process of getting the results out to the world, both timely and accurately, the process we still use today.  This is Marc's first appearance in the standings since moving to South Carolina to be closer to his family.  Thanks Marc,,,buddy... try harder and win a plaque next year!  Hi!

Phone

Over the years the NCQP committee has endeavored to increase the phone activity in an otherwise good CW centered contest.  I think we're here.  The balance between Phone and CW was very evident this year.  With the amp turned on running High Power,             James, KN6VTC got the most Q's and NC counties for the win here and rounding it out with 500 more bonus points added for working the majority of the bonus counties was icing on the cake.  Good job Jim.  In second place, and also in the running for Top DX was Ontario station VE3LRL, Larry Langs.  Our Canadian neighbors to the north always put in the extra effort and it is appreciated.

Low Power was the choice of the leader in this category, Scott Hostertler, K4MNI, making 110 QSOs at his QTH South Carolina, next door.  Scott must have employed a good strategy to end up at the top with SC usually too close to take best advantage of 20M.  Kudos to him.   Avery Hill Senior, W4QYV, must have had the same memo on how to do it because he also secured the second spot from South Carolina also.  Good to see our close neighbors competitive in the contest.

Top DX

With 31 logs received from DX stations, including Canada, I don't think anyone is surprised to see OM2VL taking it again this year.  I don't know the details of Laci's station, but Dunajska Streda, Slovakia where he lives is a long way from North Carolina!  Thank you, Laci, for being a faithful participant in the North Carolina QSO Party.  Deserving honorable mention is Diestmar Kasper, DL3DXX, for placing in these standings next to Laci at the top.  Diestmar is also the recipient of the second place certificate in CW High Power.  Great to see the DX in the mix.

The Chairman's Award

This is always a treat for your chairman to give special recognition to an NCQP participant who is an inspiration to NCQP and ham radio in general.  The recipient is already selected, but as of now we'll keep it under wraps until the plaque is made and it can be presented.  Look for a post on the NCQP home page a little later in April to see who got it.  We'll also put something up on social media.  Stay tuned!

Weak Signal Showcase

The experiment with FT8/4 continued this year with a separate event in parallel with the main QSO Party.  It was expanded this year to include our out of state ops who wanted to give it a try.  Of the 14 logs received, eight came from NC ops and the remaining six came from those participants outside North Carolina.  Its not an ideal situation due to the unusual circumstance inherent in this mode of operation, but we know it is worth a try.  To reiterate, we are still in the exploratory stage of how this can become a permanent part of NCQP going forward.  We remain hopeful the powers that be within the FT4/8 community will come up with “Field Day” style add in for state QSO parties so the requirements of the on-air exchange are accommodated.  We will see what the future brings.

Meanwhile, coming in with 181 qualifying QSOs and a score of 15,023 points is Eric, K4PYR, the winner in NC.  Second place following is Ed, W4UTC, with 8.084 points derived from 94 Q's.  KI4LLA, Darrell L. Little, lead the best of the ops outside NC and Chris Ray, KC2HSU in second.

Wrap Up

As they say, 2026 is in the books, and a good one it was!  The plaques and certificates are in-process of being made now and will be mailed out shortly.  The target is to get them mailed out to the recipients late April or Early May.  The artwork designs are finished and they look great!

Be sure to have a look at the Soapbox comments compiled from the actual participants themselves.  Great stories there well worth the time reading.  Won't be long before planning 2027 begins!  Until then …. VY 73 TO ALL!

Respectfully Submitted,

Marty Young, W4MY
NC QSO Party Chairman

 

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